WAR ISN’T ENTERTAINMENT—

AND SHOULDN’T BE TREATED LIKE IT IS

August 13, 2012

An Open Letter to Mr. Robert Greenblatt, Chairman of
NBC Entertainment, General Wesley Clark (ret.), Producer Mark
Burnett and others involved in “Stars Earn
Stripes”:

During the Olympics, touted as a time for comity and peace among
nations, millions first learned that NBC would be premiering a
new “reality” TV show. The commercials announcing “Stars
Earn Stripes” were shown seemingly endlessly throughout the
athletic competition, noting that its premier would be Monday,
August 13, following the end of the Olympic games.

That might seem innocuous since spectacular, high budget sporting
events of all types are regular venues for airing new products,
televisions shows and movies. But “Stars Earn Stripes” is
not just another reality show. Hosted by retired four-star
general Wesley Clark, the program pairs minor celebrities with US
military personnel and puts them through simulated military
training, including some live fire drills and helicopter
drops. The official NBC website for the show touts “the
fast-paced competition” as “pay[ing] homage to the men and women
who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces and our first-responder
services.”

It is our belief that this program pays homage to no one anywhere
and continues and expands on an inglorious tradition of
glorifying war and armed violence. Military training is not to be
compared, subtly or otherwise, with athletic competition by
showing commercials throughout the Olympics. Preparing for war is
neither amusing nor entertaining.

Real war is down in the dirt deadly. People—military and
civilians—die in ways that are anything but entertaining.
Communities and societies are ripped apart in armed conflict and
the aftermath can be as deadly as the war itself as simmering
animosities are unleashed in horrific spirals of violence.
War, whether relatively short-lived or going on for decades as in
too many parts of the world, leaves deep scars that can take
generations to overcome – if ever.

Trying to somehow sanitize war by likening it to an athletic
competition further calls into question the morality and ethics
of linking the military anywhere with the entertainment industry
in barely veiled efforts to make war and its multitudinous costs
more palatable to the public.

The long history of collaboration between militaries and civilian
media and entertainment—and not just in the United States—appears
to be getting murkier and in many ways more threatening to
efforts to resolve our common problems through nonviolent
means. Active-duty soldiers already perform in Hollywood
movies, “embedded” media ride with soldier in combat situations,
and now NBC is working with the military to attempt to turn
deadly military training into a sanitized “reality” TV show that
reveals absolutely nothing of the reality of being a soldier in
war or the consequences of war. What is next?

As people who have seen too many faces of armed conflict and
violence and who have worked for decades to try to stop the
seemingly unending march toward the increased militarization of
societies and the desensitization of people to the realities and
consequences of war, we add our voices and our support to those
protesting “Stars Earn Stripes.” We too call upon NBC stop
airing this program that pays homage to no one, and is a massive
disservice to those who live and die in armed conflict and suffer
its consequences long after the guns of war fall silent.